The present invention is directed to a geared head for a camera or a camera cradle for photographic equipment. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a mechanism for controlling the movement and the position of a camera cradle for photographic equipment. In the field of professional motion picture photography, camera cradles have been developed for allowing a change in directional elevation, i.e., tilt, in a very precise and smooth manner without removing the camera from its support base.
One such camera tilting mechanism is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,587 in which the tilting mechanism employs a flexible toothed belt having its ends fixed to an arcuate undersurface of the camera cradle. The toothed belt passes around a pinion gear so that the turning of the pinion gear controls the tilting position of the camera cradle. With the camera mounted on top of the cradle, the tilting in either direction is limited to half the length of the arcuate undersurface.
The above-described tilt mechanism remains a standard in the movie industry. The pan and the tilt motions are controlled by the camera grip, i.e., the operator, operating a first crank wheel which controls the panning mechanism and a second crank wheel which controls the tilting mechanism. The crank wheels are conveniently positioned adjacent one another to provide easy manipulation.
The existing cradle tilting mechanism may also be specially adapted with alternate baseplates to accommodate and position a standard movie camera such that the center of gravity of the movie camera is placed at the center of rotation of the arcuate undersurface so that the camera remains balanced during tilting. Each different camera would require its own special baseplate in order to achieve a balanced operation.